PHOTOSENSITIVE'S 20TH ANNIVERSARY RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION AND BOOK

The cover of Field of Vision: PhotoSensitive and Social Change, the book commemorating 20 years of PhotoSensitive.

Book cover photo by Chris Grabowski

A huge retrospective exhibition of stunning photos from 20 years of PhotoSensitive projects will open on September 14 at the Allen Lambert Galleria, Brookfield Place, Toronto.

Field of Vision: PhotoSensitive and Social Change contains over 300 images from 17 projects produced in partnership with 19 charitable organizations, including United Way, CNIB, CARE Canada, Hospital for Sick Children and Daily Bread Food Bank.

The projects cover a wide variety of subjects, from the very first - homelessness, to the most recent - cancer.

PhotoSensitive’s founding photographer, Andrew Stawicki, began his career as a photographer in his native Poland and then Germany before immigrating to Canada with his young family in 1982.

Although Andrew’s English wasn’t great, he let his camera do the talking and soon picked up a job as a staff photographer for the Toronto Star. His photos also featured in “A Day in the Life of…” series of books, on the USA, Canada, Japan, Spain and the Soviet Union. His photos of Mennonites, taken over a 10-year period, were published in the book, “A People Apart”.

For some time, being a Toronto Star photographer suited him. “I got the car. I got the camera. I got to travel. I had so many opportunities. I got everything a photographer dreams of,” Andrew recalls. But this wasn’t enough.